BEYOND THE MOVIE: PEARL HARBOR
The goal: Cripple U.S. naval might in
the Pacific, allowing Japan to seize
control of the area.
U.S. Cuts off oil supply
Japanese only had enough oil for 18 months
FACT -The embargoed U.S. goods included one
Japan could not live without – oil to fuel its
war machine.
Japanese military leaders warned that without
oil, Japan could be defeated without its
enemies ever striking a blow (6 months)
Roosevelt has meeting with
his officials (prior to Pearl Harbor)
• Said that he was disappointed that Army wasn’t
doing more for Allies in Europe (suggests more
tanks be sent to help British and Russians)
• FICTION… the meeting took place in early 1941
when Russia was in peace treaty with Nazi Germany
[didn’t become Allie until January 1942]
• THEORY – Roosevelt knew about impending attack
but did nothing because he wanted the US to be
drawn into the war
Japanese have council meeting Japanese plan for 3 weeks to attack
Pearl Harbor
• FICTION – WAY BEFORE THAT!
• 1940 – Spring – Japanese began conducting
aerial torpedo exercises
• Early 1941 – Yamamoto began considering a
surprise carrier-launched attack on U.S. Pacific
Fleet at Pearl Harbor
Japanese Offensive–
Wooden fins on torpedoes FACT
The "impossible" task of an aerial torpedo attack was made possible.
• Conventional aerial torpedoes plunged to more than
100 feet in depth and ran a long distance to arm.
– The 45-foot average depth of Pearl Harbor and the short
runs necessary to sink ships there were dealt with by
adding wooden fins to the torpedoes, altering the arming
devices, and by training in simulated conditions.
• Pilots were combat veterans of the Japanese war in
China
– Carefully practiced the attack procedures and had specific
targets assigned for the attack
– “Better” fighters (A6M Zero) superior to Army’s P-40
Warhawk fighters
Pilot flying with the Royal Air Force (RAF)
• FICTION - Could not happen – Before 1941, active military
personnel were not allowed to serve with a belligerent (in
a state of war) nation that U.S. was neutral with (Britain)
• They would have lost their U.S. citizenship by accepting
military commissions from a foreign government, making
them ineligible to receive commissions from the U.S.
• In reality - would have had to resign from U.S. Air Corp and
rejoin with the RAF
Boxing on the Arizona
• FACT - naval officers took part in writing
letters, boxing and wrestling matches to pass
the time in Hawaii
Black soldiers were discriminated against
• FACT U.S. military was still heavily segregated
beginning of World War II
– When FDR opened Navy up to African Americans,
it was only in 1 area – they were called to be mass
attendants, stewards, and cooks
Was Cuba Gooding, Jr’s character real?
Yes – Dorie Miller (ship’s cook)
*was renowned as the best heavyweight boxer onboard the USS
West Virginia (he was on this ship during Pearl Harbor)
On the morning – he was doing laundry rounds when call to battle stations went out
• Everyone (even cooks) were assigned a combat task – His was antiaircraft battery
magazine
• Was damaged by torpedo fire, he went
above deck to help wounded
• He physically picked up the captain and
brought him down to first aid station
• Went back and manned a .50 caliber
machine gun (not trained on)
He received the Navy Cross for his actions
however some argued he deserved the highest
honor, the Medal of Honor
Some dismiss Miller’s action (while exemplary)
only received attention because gov’t was looking
for Pearl Harbor heroes
Japanese did a fly over prior to the attack
• FICTION – Admiral Yamamoto failed to launch
a planned aerial surveillance of Pearl Harbor,
so he sailed into battle effectively blind
U.S. expected some sort of attack
• FACT - The U.S. military had broken Japan’s secret
communication codes and learned that Japan was
preparing for a strike (January 1941)
But was dismissed by
some as wild rumor.
What it didn’t know
was…where the attack
would come…Pearl
Harbor…the
Philippines?
Was Captain Thurman real and did he
predict Pearl Harbor attack?
• Captain Thurman (Dan Aykroyd) is Naval Intelligence
decoder who predicts the invasion in the film, but
the brass don't believe him.
• This character is not real, but based on a
combination of different men with similar jobs.
U.S. decipher Japanese Conversations
• FACT - Effective cryptography and successful
cryptanalysis were in their infancy at the time.
– Under-funded, under-manned and under-equipped,
cryptanalysts had been ordered to concentrate on
Japanese diplomatic traffic, rather than naval messages.
• While there were veiled warnings and isolated events
of Japanese hostilities in the weeks, days and hours
ahead of the attack, no one in command at Pearl
Harbor or in Washington, D.C., expected a Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, especially before war was
formally declared.
Japanese sent false information to confuse U.S.
• FACT - The Japanese practiced radio deception
• “Every day false communications emanated from Kyushu (Intelligence and
Communication center) at the same time and same wavelength…”
• Day of attack - flooded the airwaves announcing a
possible attack on various targets throughout the
Pacific. This confused the Americans and helped the
Japanese use surprise to attack Pearl Harbor.
Spies in Hawaii?
• FACT - Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese naval
reserve ensign
• Navy offered him a job with its general
staff's intelligence division.
• For the next four years, the young man
studied English and pored over everything
available on the U.S. Navy and its Pacific
Ocean bases.
• He was told late in 1940 that he was being
posted to the American territory of
Hawaii.
• There, posing as junior diplomat, he was
to keep current on the status of the U.S.
fleet and its anchorages, reporting his
observations to Tokyo by coded telegraph
messages.
• Yoshikawa had given the Japanese navy
invaluable information for its upcoming
surprise attack.
Boats and planes were bundled
• FACT
• Of the 100 ships
in Pearl Harbor,
the primary
targets were the
eight battleships
anchored there
and tied together.
– Seven were
moored on
Battleship Row
• At the airfields,
planes were
crowed together
Films about the war in Europe were
released
• FACT – did show newsreels prior to movies
Radar saw Japanese planes
• FACT - a young radar operator did indeed see
the massive Japanese approach, but was told
not to worry about it as the officer in charge
thought it was only a group of B-17 Flying
Fortresses returning to Hawaii from training in
California.
Japanese subs trying to get into Pearl Harbor?
FACT - In the hours before dawn, U.S.
Navy vessels spotted an unidentified
submarine periscope near the
entrance to Pearl Harbor.
It was attacked and reported
sunk by the destroyer USS Ward (DD139) and a patrol plane.
• During WWII, the Japanese Navy deployed hundreds of different
sorts of submarines, but on December 7th, they debuted a
particularly secret weapon—a midget sub.
– Five furtively made their way toward Pearl Harbor to attack U.S. battleships.
• GOAL - was to sink any American warships which escaped the
Japanese carrier force.
Torpedoes in water
• FACT - The patrol ship USS Condor spotted a sub in restricted
waters just inside the harbor and contacted the USS Ward,
which raced to the scene and opened fire.
– A second Japanese midget sub actually penetrated
Pearl Harbor's inner defenses and fired two
torpedoes.
• Both missed and the sub was rammed and sunk
– A third midget sub broaching the surface as it fires a
torpedo towards US warships.
– A fourth ran aground and it's commander was
captured, the first prisoner of war taken by the US in
World War 2.
• Sailors really did report feeling torpedoes skim past their
legs when they were in the water
Lost track of whole Japanese fleet
• FACT - They did disappear from radars
• Came in from the North and Japanese fleet
had been ordered into radio silence
December 7 1941 -Japanese surprise
attacks Pearl Harbor
• FACT - The Japanese aircraft achieved complete surprise
when they hit American ships and military installations on
Oahu shortly before 8:00 a.m., attacking military airfields at
the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor.
• The Navy air bases at Ford Island and Kaneohe Bay, the
Marine airfield at Ewa and the Army Air Corps fields at
Bellows, Wheeler and Hickam were all bombed.
The purpose of the simultaneous attacks
was to destroy the American planes
before they could rise to intercept the
Japanese as they bombed the harbor
Observing radio silence and taking advantage of squally
(stormy) weather and coming in from the North, the
Japanese fleet arrives to Hawaii undetected. Planes were
heavily laden with fuel and bombs
Japanese carrier planes
waiting to take off.
Dec7 1941. Japanese bomber over Hickam field (US army air
force) (Hawaii). Notice large plumes of smoke.
Hickam Field. An army B17 bomber lies cut in half.
US airfield under attack- notice all the planes lined up in neat
rows. Easy targets for the Japanese fighters.
Japanese gunner waving the kids away
• FACT - It is believed that the Japanese
crewman was apparently warning civilians on
the ground to take cover since they were
going to attack.
The attack on Pearl Harbor lasts
about 40 minutes.
• FICTION Just under two hours
• The first wave of Japanese planes flew in from the
north, achieving a complete surprise attack at 7:55
a.m. .
• At 8:45 a.m., a second wave continued the
bombardment and the last attacker flew away at
approximately 9:45 a.m.
Danny says "I think World War II just
started”
• This makes little sense for a
number of reasons.
• #1 - In 1941, World War I was still called
The Great War (it wasn't officially called
World War I until 1948, so the term
'World War II' had no meaning at the
time of the Pearl Harbor attack)
• #2 – Danny’s assessment that World
War II began with Pearl Harbor is
inaccurate.
• - American involvement began with the
attacks, but the European portion of the
war had been going on since 1939,
when Germany invaded Poland.
There was little resistance
• FICTION - Taken by surprise, the U.S. forces
immediately responded to the attack with 5
minutes.
– Navy ships in the harbor opened fire with antiaircraft
guns ASAP (credited with 15 planes shot down)
– On shore, Army P-36 and P-40 fighters managed to
take off and shot down as many as 10 Japanese
planes
– One Japanese plan shot down from small-arms fire
over Fort Shafter
Admiral Kimmel – Commander of Pacific fleet
was golfing on the day of the attack
• FALSE
• He did have a golf
date with his military
counterpart Lt.
General Short
BUT before he had
time to eat breakfast
and dress, he received
word that a destroyer on
patrol at the entrance to
Pearl Harbor had sighted
and sunk an enemy
submarine.
Admiral Kimmel – Commander of Pacific fleet
• He was blamed for not being ready
– Relieved of his duties about a week
later
– Most Historians say that Kimmel
received several warnings about a
possible attack on Pearl Harbor, but
felt they were too vague and chose to
dismiss them
Spent rest of his life saying he was
unfairly blamed
• Update: In 2007, Congress voted to
exonerate him and Walter Short of
dereliction of duty in connection
with the attack
2 Main Characters were real pilots
• FICTION (and FACT)
• There never were
any pilots by the
names of Rafe
McCawley and
Danny Walker.
– However, these two
pilots are supposed
to be based on
Second Lieutenants
George Welch and
Kenneth Taylor.
2 pilots getting into planes and shooting down
Japanese after initial attack
FACT
- Welch and Taylor did race in a Buick to an airfield
during the attack
- They were the first two pilots off the ground
- Welch and Taylor were responsible for taking down
at least 6 of the 29 Japanese aircrafts that were lost.
However, the love story with the nurse that is shown
in the movie never occurred with Welch and Taylor.
– Additionally, Welch and Taylor did not participate in
the Doolittle Raid,
The two real pilots (Welch and Taylor)
supposedly did not appreciate how they were
depicted in the film. Taylor was quoted saying
that the film was "a piece of trash; oversensationalized and completely distorted”
Number of Japanese planes and
bombers attack Pearl Harbor
• Japanese Navy Zero fighter planes (superior to
U.S. fighters)
• In the film they are colored a dark green,
where in reality they were a light gray.
• Over 420 attacked Pearl Harbor
A Japanese carrier torpedo bomber.
When was the last time you saw more than 2 airplanes in
the sky at once?
Over 3000 killed
• FACT - The Navy and Marine Corps
suffered a total of 2,896 casualties
• The Army lost 228 killed or died of
wounds,
• In addition, at least 57 civilians were
killed and nearly as many seriously
injured
Soldiers being burned from oil
• FACT – As the attacked continued, desperate men
raced for safety by leaping into the waters of a
harbor that was coated with oil and beginning to
burn.
Japanese withdrew their third wave
• FACT – Third wave was
planned
– an attack which would
target the dockyards,
maintenance shops,
and oil depots
– But Japanese Admiral
felt it was too big a risk
as the Japanese had
lost the element of
surprise, and the US
Navy and Army were
beginning to mobilize.
Destruction of ships and planes
• Within 15 minutes – main battle line was neutralized…
• The battleships California, Oklahoma, West Virginia,
Nevada, Utah, and Arizona were sunk
• Maryland, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania were damaged
TOTAL OF 96 vessels at Pearl Harbor
*All together the Japanese sank or severely damaged
18 ships, including the 8 battleships, 3 light cruisers, and 3
destroyers
On the airfields the Japanese destroyed 161 American planes
(Army 74, Navy 87) and seriously damaged 102 (Army 71,
Navy 31).
Ships were sunk –
Men stuck and drowned trapped in ship
FACT
• USS Arizona, the final resting place for
many of the 1,177 crewmen killed
–is still at the bottom of Pearl Harbor
Ships were sunk –
Men stuck and drowned trapped in ship
• USS Oklahoma, rolled over – men were
trapped upside down – started banging
on the bulkhead trying to get attention of
passing small boats (died from
suffocation) = 395 men and 20 officers
One ship has turned over, and fires burn
unchecked everywhere.
US ships sinking at anchor.
With the air force destroyed, the naval ships were now easy targets. Many
sailors found ammunition stores locked as a peacetime security measure.
Nurse Betty dies in attack
• FICTION - No Navy Nurses died as a result of
enemy action during the entirety of World
War II, including the attack on Pearl Harbor
• In addition, Nurse Betty who claimed she lied
was only 17 - FICTION …Navy nurses HAD to
have 3 years training prior (which she would
have had when she was 14)
Nurses marked wounded with lipstick
• FACT – Nurses did mark patients that had
received morphine with an "M", marking
them with a "C" for critical, and "F" for fatally
wounded
• Also, when running out of ink from their pens,
they actually did use lipstick to mark patients
instead.
Asian Doctors and Nurses were
treated harshly by some wounded
• FACT - Asian nurses and
doctors were often
discriminated against
and soldiers would
refuse to be treated by
them
Memorial service
• FACT - Two services – Nuuanu Cemetery and Red Hill
• Large trench dug
– (chaplains demanded that each plot be surveyed and marked)
• Firing squad and bugler lined the trenches
• Three chaplains present
– Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish
• If faith was known, that chaplain would step forward and
conducted the internment
– If unknown, all three
Japanese Commander says that they
“have just awoken a sleeping giant”
• FICTION - Also said in the movie Tora! Tora!
Tora!
• Is yet to be verified that Yamamoto ever said
this (Tora! Producer claims it was found in his
diary and letter he wrote – but can’t find
either)
• True that Yamamoto believed that Japan could
not win a protracted (long, drawn-out) war
with the U.S.
FDR’s Speech –
asks Congress to declare war
• FACT - Day after (Dec 8th) - FDR addressed
Congress and asked for a Declaration of War
with Japan
• The Senate and House approved war
unanimously EXCEPT for one –
Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin – first
woman elected to Congress
• “As a woman, I can’t go to war and I refuse to
send anyone else”
U.S. discusses retaliation
• The scene where Roosevelt demands that the
Army and Navy find a way to strike back at
Japan but is told by the Admiral and General
that such an attack is impossible is entirely
fictitious, no such scene ever took place
• In reality, they were as many advocates of
striking back directly at Japan as was
Roosevelt himself
FDR (polio-strictened)
stands up out of wheelchair
• FICTION - NO historical record of this –
– Without braces on his legs, Roosevelt could barely
stand
– Historian say he always tried to disguise his
disability
America bombed Japan –
America makes top-secret retaliation
• FACT - Doolittle Raid – April 1942
• First air raid by the U.S. to strike the Japanese
homeland
• Vitale moral boost and opportunity for U.S.
retaliation after the Pearl Harbor attack
• Bomb military targets and then land in China
• FICTION - 2 pilots (movie) were NOT involved
• FACT – did wire the peace medals to the bombs
Doolittle Raid – April 18, 1942
FACT – Japanese boats were encountered. These
were evaded or sunk, but got off radio warnings,
forcing the planes to take off around 8 AM,
while still more than 600 miles out.
An Army Air Force B-25B bomber takes off from USS Hornet.
None of the B-25 pilots,
including Doolittle, had
ever taken off from an
aircraft carrier before
Target - military and industrial targets in Tokyo,
Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka and Nagoya
• Although some B-25s encountered light antiaircraft
fire and a few enemy fighters, none were shot down
or severely damaged.
• 15 of the 16 planes then proceeded across the East
China Sea towards eastern China, where recovery
bases supposedly awaited them
• Problems - low fuel, bad weather, night approaching
– One of the B-25s ran extremely low on fuel and headed
for Russia, which was closer.
• When they landed their B-25 was confiscated and the crew
interned until escaping in May 1943.
As a result of these problems
• Crews realized they would not be able to reach
their intended base in China, leaving them the
option of either bailing out over eastern China or
crash landing along the Chinese coast.
When the action was over, 15 planes
had been destroyed in crashes
• 3 Raiders were killed during their
attempts to land in China.
• 8 were captured by the Japanese
– 3 were executed and a fourth died
of disease in prison.
– Most of the B-25 crews that came
down in China eventually made it to
safety with the help of Chinese
civilians and flew other wartime
missions.
But the Chinese paid dearly as the Japanese killed approx.
250,000 civilians while searching for Doolittle’s men.
Aftermath
Bombs did little material damage.
• Nevertheless when the
news of the raid was released
American morale soared.
The raid also had a strategic impact on the war.
Japanese Response
– The Japanese military recalled many units back to the
home islands for defense, where they remained while
battles raged throughout the Pacific.
• Additionally, it provoked Admiral Yamamoto into
attempting a hastily organized strike against
Midway Island that resulted in the loss of 4 fleet
carriers, many sailors and a number of highly
trained aircrew from which the Imperial Japanese
Navy never recovered.
Pearl Harbor’s Impact on the Japanese
• Anti-Japanese sentiments
had existed in US for several
decades prior to the attack
on Pearl Harbor.
• During that time, more than
119,000 people of Japanese
ancestry, two-thirds of them
American citizens, were
living in California,
Washington, and Oregon.
• The attack of Pearl Harbor
shocked the American
public, resulting in
widespread hysteria and
paranoia. ..
(www.usatoday.com/.../contenttemplate14.htm)
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